Feels Like Home
by Rainbow Haired Girl
Summary: Eighteen year old Elara Baker is new to the FBI and is their newest Forensic Scientist. She had finished her degree before she turned eighteen and now she works for the BAU. She gets thrown into a world that she wasn't expecting. No one was expecting an eighteen year old forensic scientist to be working on almost every single case with them. Reid/OC


Feels Like Home

Rainbow Haired Girl

Summary: Eighteen year old Elara Baker is new to the FBI and is their newest Forensic Scientist. She had finished her degree before she turned eighteen and now she works for the BAU. She gets thrown into a world that she wasn't expecting. No one was expecting an eighteen year old forensic scientist to be working on almost every single case with them.

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone, but Elara Baker and her family. I don't own Criminal Minds.

Authoress Note: This Chapter will be set during the Boogeyman, but it doesn't follow the plot of the Boogeyman that well. I would have had this chapter finished yesterday, but I wasn't feeling 100% to putting this up just yet. Yes I know the OC is on the younger side, but age is really just a number to some people isn't it? She's 18 and he's 24... it would be 6 years age difference... so it isn't too bad. This will probably be a Spencer Reid/Oc fanfic since I love Spencer Reid. Lol anyway on with the story.

**Important Authoress Note: I am still up for doing one shots of any kind. The list of what I can write for is well pretty much the categories that I have already written for. Pm me with the information. It will keep me busy. **

Chapter 1

Throwing Her In

_Courage is the resistance to fear, mastery of fear, not absence of fear. - Mark Twain_

_Quantico, Virginia_

A young woman was waking up fairly early in the morning. It was around five in the morning. She groaned as she got out of her bed. Her raven colored short locks were every which way, but the right way a mess. She ran her fingers through her messy hair. "Great... got to get ready for work." She grumbled as she walked to her bathroom to get ready for the day. Her cell phone rang and she quickly picked it up and saw the id it was her mother calling. She answered it. "Morning mom." She said as she turned her light on to her bathroom.

"_Morning baby doll. How are you this morning?" _

"I'm fine mom, just getting up and getting ready to go to work." She told her mother.

"_Are you sure that you are prepared for this line of work... I know that you wanted to work with the FBI when you started, but are you sure that this is the right path for you now? I mean after what happened at your old college?"_

"Mom... I am sure that I can handle it. I mean it isn't going to be that often that I will be on the road with them." She said as she slipped her night shirt off that matched her raven colored hair. "I will call you after work is done."

"_Alright baby doll. I love you."_

"Love you too mom."

"_Bye."_

"Bye..." She hung up her phone and got into the shower taking a quick one. Even thought that she knew that work wasn't going to start working. She washed her hair and body fairly quickly. She wrapped her towel around her small body as she got out of the shower. She changed into her work clothes. Her clothes were a mix of a teenager and an adult. She wore a red halter styled top, a black short over shirt, a pair of black jeans to match, and red high heels. She fixed her hair into a a spiky style (Alice Cullen hair do in Twilight). She put a light style of makeup on that wasn't too bold for her first day of work.

She left her bathroom and got a nice hot cup of coffee. She looked at the clock that was on the wall and noticed that it was almost time for her to go into work. They were actually starting fairly early in the morning 7AM which wasn't that normal for them on most days very few days they started that early. She finished her cup of coffee and knew that she needed to get going. She grabbed her white lab coat that she probably wouldn't be wearing unless she was in the office and her bag that had her important items in it. She grabbed her keys and rushed out the door.

X * X * X * X * X * X

Gideon looked at his crew. "Meeting in the conference room in five minutes. We will be meeting our new Forensic Scientist. The only thing that I can say is be nice to her. This is the first time that she will be working with people like us."

"So we hired a new female? Who is she Gideon?" Morgan asked, looking at the senior supervisor special agent.

"I will introduce her to you guys once we get in there. She will be there shortly." Gideon told Morgan. He didn't want anyone to see her when she came in. "Go on already." He said, as he watched his crew leave go to the conference room. He stood there waiting for the young woman that would be working with them. He noticed her spiky hair style right away knowing that it was her that was arriving. He walked up to her. "Elara Baker so good to see you again." He said, with a smile as he hugged her.

"Good to see you too Agent Gideon." She said, returning the hug to the older man. She pulled away from him. "So I take it that your crew is ready to meet me." She said softly, slightly afraid of meeting her new group that she was going to be working with.

"Follow me Elara." He said, motioning her to follow him into the conference room. "Wait here and I will bring you in."

Elara nodded her head. "Yes, Agent Gideon."

Gideon walked into the room.

Elara listened fairly closely to what Gideon was saying to his group.

"Alright please be nice to her. Seeing the fact that she is younger than most of you. She just graduated from college. Before you ask she is fairly smart." He told them. "She has an IQ of 180. Her name is Elara Baker. Elara come in dear."

Elara slowly came into the room revealing herself. She felt everyone's eyes on her and she shyly looked down at her red high heels.

"Gideon how old is she?" Hotchner asked automatically. He didn't like the fact that this was a child as he saw her was standing there in the room as their forensic scientist.

"She is 18 years old." Gideon told them.

The group looked at the younger girl in surprise.

"So she is a genius like Reid here." J.J stated as she looked at the girl closely.

Elara shifted lightly where she was standing. She wanted to know why they were thinking that she was a genius, that maybe the case, but she wasn't as smart as others. She was able to do a lot of things with her mind.

"Does she talk?" Asked Morgan, slightly concerned of why the young woman wasn't speaking to them.

Elara shyly looked up at them.

"She talks... she is just shy."

"Shy is the underestimate Agent Gideon." Elara said, softly finally finding her voice.

"What school did you go to?" Asked Hotchner.

"Bradshaw College... in Tempe, Arizona." She said softly.

"Isn't that the college that we saved in 2005?" Morgan asked, slightly confused.

Elara nodded her head. "Yes, that would be the college that you saved."

"We never saw you." Elle said, looking at the younger woman.

"Wouldn't expect anyone to notice me." She stated. "You would have to have a keen eye to notice me." She looked at Reid and Hotchner. "I know the both of you, you came into the chem lab when Clara Hayes was naming off the items to create a Molotov Cocktail." She said, shaking her head. "I was actually in the back of the class studying my butt off rather than allowing that girl bother me by what she was saying. I rather study." She stated with a shrug of her shoulders.

A young man came into the room carrying files for them. "Miss Jareau these were on your desk. Urgent."

"Thank you Kevin." She said, taking the files from him. She looked over the file quickly and then proceeded to hand them out. She handed one to Elara.

"Ozona, Texas... children have been bludgeoned to death."

"Sounds like we're going to need you on this case Elara. Do you have your over night bag?" Asked Gideon.

"Yes, Agent Gideon I do." She said, with a small smile. She knew that she wasn't going to be getting out of this case that easily. Anything that dealt with children tore at her heartstrings.

"Good we leave in thirty minutes." Gideon told her.

Elara nodded her head. She went to go to make sure that she had everything in her car. She knew that she was going to have to call her mom and tell her that she was going to be on a case for a little bit and probably wouldn't be able to call to talk to her mother until the job was done. Her seventeen year old sister would probably try and call her so she had quite a few people to call them.

X * X * X * X * X * X

Elara's hand twitched slightly as she dialed a number that she wished she never had to dial. Elara's 17 year old sister hated her for being smart and graduating at the age of 14 when she was 13 and still in middle school. She knew that her sister would call to make a mess of things so it was better for her day to be bad then instead of while she was working on a case. She put the phone up to her ear and waited for her younger sister to answer the phone.

"_Hello..."_

"Lailanni..."

"_Oh god what the fuck do you want?"_

"I just wanted to tell you that I will be working for the next few days and I will call you when I get back."

"_What ever. You just don't want me to call you so you won't be stressed out at work." _

"That would be right."

"_What ever. Bye."  
_

Elara rolled her eyes and hung up. She shook her head and dialed her mother's phone number. She knew that her sister would probably tell her, but then again Lailanni should have been on her way to school seeing what time it was.

"_Hello?"_

"Mom... I won't be able to call you tonight... I have a case to work."

"_You just be careful out there honey. I don't want to hear that you get shot." _

"Mom I'll be fine. I promise you that."

"_Alright good luck. Bye."_

"Bye." She said softly, as she hung up her phone. She saw Reid was looking at her. Her face flushed. "W-what are y-you looking at?" She stuttered out.

Reid's face went red. "S-sorry."

"What are you two going on about?" Morgan asked, looking at the two geniuses.

Elara looked away and went digging through her bag to see if she could find something to read. She didn't want someone to ask her questions. "Nothing." She squeaked.

Morgan laughed. "It's alright to be shy on your first day baby girl, just don't make it a habit." He said with a wink.

Elara's face flushed even more and looked down at her lap trying to hide her face.

X * X * X * X * X * X

_Ozona, Texas_

Elara was glad that she had brought a change of shoes instead of wearing high heels in the middle of the woods. She had taken off her black button up short shirt that covered her red halter top revealing white creamy skin that was exposed from the back of it. On the back of her neck a small tattoo written in Chinese was easily seen and it had the meaning of strength. She was busy looking at the crime scene. She had a pair of white rubber gloves on her hands analyzing the area that was there. She didn't know why that they assigned Reid to help her, but any kind of help would have been great for her.

Reid watched her carefully. How could she be in her element when this was her first time working a case like this? He could only wonder how she could do this. It looked like she was having an easy time. He watched her kneel down looking at something that had blood splatter on it.

She picked it up carefully. "Blunt object... Not the right kind of blunt object. It's aluminum... A baseball bat maybe?" She muttered to herself as she placed down again right in the exact spot where the object was at. She slowly got back up to her feet using her wrist to move her bangs out of her eyes. She continued to look at the crime scene. She hopped down to a lower place. "Reid if you follow... be careful." She told him as she looked farther into the crime scene.

"Why choose this field?" Reid asked as he came down to her level carefully heeding her warning.

"Why choose this field?" Elara said, as she carefully maneuvered her way around the crime scene. "Well, being able to help people is what I wanted to do. When I tried to join CIA they didn't need anyone and the same way with NCIS. So I found out through them that the FBI BAU needed a Forensic scientist. So I made the choice. It was either this or working as some one who makes coffee." She shook her head as she looked closer at the scene.

"Even working at a coffee shop would have been easier than this job." Reid said, looking at the younger woman.

Elara shook her head. "That may be the case, but I don't like working in coffee shops. I did that while I was in college when I turned 16." She said, as she slowly walked ducking underneath the branches to not knock her head off the low branches.

"What do you think the item could be that they used?" Reid asked, shyly not wanting to upset her. He licked his dry lips hoping that she wouldn't mind the question that he had just asked.

"It's something smooth..."

"Like what a lead pipe?"

Elara shook her head. "No, more like a aluminum baseball bat weighing at most 3 to 4 pounds."

"You certain?"

"It's just a guess right now." Elara said, looking up at him her grey eyes shining brightly. Her cheeks flushed a little bit when her grey eyes locked onto his brown ones. She felt her heart leap into her throat and her cheeks went even pinker. Never once in her life had she felt her heart beat so painfully in her chest trying to make a tattoo on the inside of her chest. She looked back to where she was going so she didn't get hurt on her first day on the job. "I'm going to have to test my theory out to make sure that it is a aluminum baseball bat." She said, softly not looking up at him. She wasn't sure if she could look up into his brown eyes again. She didn't want her heart beat out of her chest again.

X * X * X * X * X * X

Elara looked at Reid. "I take it that you are going to the old house tonight to look and see if the guy is still living there?" She asked him, fairly shyly.

"I'm planning on it. We have to see if he is behind these murders."

The eighteen year old nodding her head. "Did you want someone to come with you? I mean you don't have to if you don't want to... I was just asking since some people don't like going alone since it is going to be dark... and sometimes it is better to have someone with you so you don't feel alone..." She realized that she was rambling. Her cheeks flushed. "Sorry."

Reid blushed. "Well doesn't Gideon have you doing something?"

Elara shook her head. Her raven locks hardly moved when she shook her head. With the stuff that she had in her hair wasn't going to allow her hair to move in the least bit. "No, he doesn't. He doesn't want me to over work myself on the first few days of this case. I don't know why though." She said, looking down at her converse shoes.

"If you want you can come... we just have to tell Gideon."

Elara looked up at him. "Really? You don't mind having another genius with you?"

"No, not at all." He said, shyly.

She smiled. She was glad that Reid was going to allow her to go with him. She was slightly nervous since she rarely had gotten out at night time. She had learned a long time ago it wasn't safe for her to walk out and go and do things.

X * X * X * X * X * X

Elara walked slowly with Reid through the woods. She had to admit that she felt safe with Reid, but also was very shy around him and him around her.

"I'm going to go and check the house quickly." Reid told her.

She nodded her head shyly. She knew that this wasn't going to be easy. She always hated creepy places like this. She gripped her flashlight even a little tighter as he disappeared into the house to look around. She decided to go and look around the surrounding area to see if she could find anything.

She made sure that she was careful where she was placing her feet so she wouldn't fall and break her ankle or anything like that. She felt her heart leap into her throat as she walked. She hated being alone in the dark, even with a flashlight her fear wasn't going to be going away anytime soon.

X * X * X * X * X * X

Reid sat alone in the dark on the phone with Garcia.

"_This is true. All complaints filed were false alarms, but then there is that matter of his missing wife."_

"Wife? What wife? When did she go missing?"

"_Almost 50 years ago."_

"No record of her ever being found?"

"_I got two words for you, my friend: 'Rear Window'. That guy probably chopped that lady up into delicious, bite-sized little pieces. Think about it. She may never have left the premises. She may still be in the house." _

"Garcia, I'm sitting in the dark alone. Thank..."

"_While you're waiting for a potential murderer to come home? Kind of dangerous. Kind of sexy. Do you have anyone with you?"_

"I have Baker with me and she is overlooking the outside premises before coming inside to look." Reid told her. He was thankful that Garcia wasn't there. His cheeks were dusted over with pink. He couldn't help, but wonder why she would come with him when she was only 18 years old and pretty much was able to go and do her own thing. He actually was worried about her.

"_Why is she with you? Did Gideon send her with you? She has no background in searching this kind of scene." _

"Gideon thought it was good to have someone come with me. She's a smart girl. She'll figure it out." He heard a thump and he squeaked.

"_Boy genius are you alright there?" _

"I-I'm fine." He said, his voice slightly turning higher pitched. He saw a flashlight.

"_It might be Baker coming in. She might have tripped over something."_

"I hope you're right."

"_Alright I'm out." _

Reid hung up his phone. "Baker is that you?" He questioned, as he slowly got up off of the chair that he was sitting in.

"Yes." She squeaked. She sounded like she was in pain. "I caught my ankle in the floor boards... and um... I can't get it out."

Reid walked over to where she was at. He saw that she was twisted in an odd position and it looked fairly painful to see her like that. "Do you want me to try and get it out for you?"

Elara nodded her head. "Yes." She squeaked. "Just be careful... it really hurts."

"You think you might have broken it?" Reid asked as he kneeled down next to her carefully taking a hold of her jean clad leg and carefully pulled it out. He heard her groan in pain as he got it out of the boards. He helped her up to her feet. "Can you put any weight on it?"

Elara thought for a minute. "I can try to..." She said softly.

"I'll be right beside you... So if I need to help you out of here I can." He said shyly.

Elara tried to take her first step to see if her ankle was alright and she screamed out in pain.

Reid quickly grabbed onto her supporting some of her weight on him. "Let's get you to the hospital. I'll call Gideon and tell him that we're on our way to the hospital."

"Right... he's going to be so disappointed." She said, in a very soft voice. She sounded so disappointed in herself.

X * X * X * X * X * X

"I'm just glad that we caught the kid..." Elara said, leaning against her crutches.

"Well we wouldn't have been able to figure it out without you sweetness." Morgan said, a smirk appearing on his lips when he saw her blushing.

"I didn't do much." She said, softly looking down at her foot that was actually on the floor.

"Oh but you did sweetness."

"Come on we're heading back home. Let's load up." Gideon told his crew.

Elara was able to get onto the plane with minimal problems. She ended up sitting on the couch propping her broken ankle up on a pillow. She pulled out a book to read which was Romeo and Juliet. She loved the book and couldn't stop reading it.

"Romeo and Juliet?" Reid asked Elara, looking at her with a small smile.

She laughed lightly and looked up at him. "Yeah one of my favorite stories."

"Would you like to join the rest of the group instead of sitting by yourself? I mean you don't have to if you don't want to..." He said.

Elara stopped him in the middle of his rant. "I would like to, but how am I going to prop my leg up?"

"You can rest it on the table or I can get something for you to put it on." He said shyly.

Soon enough Reid had her moved into the seat next to him. He allowed her to rest her leg on his lap since he couldn't find anything comfortable for her to rest her foot on. He was embarrassed and so was she. She wasn't expecting him to be that nice to allow her to do that.

"So, why the woods, J.J?" Morgan asked the blond haired woman.

"Hmmm?"

"Your fear, you said it was of the woods." Morgan said, looking at her.

"Err, I used to be a camp counselor when I was a teenager, in the woods up around Vermont. I had the night shift, you know, tuck the girls in, turn off the lights, you know, the typical drill. Everything seemed fine. The kids were asleep, you know, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Until... I noticed that there was some blood, on the hallway floor. SO I followed the blood trail down the hall to the camp director's cabin, walked up to his bed, and... he was just lying there, under his covers, dead. Someone stabbed him. I ran out of there so fast, out the door, down the hall. I can just remember it being really dark. Once I got to the door, there was another counselor, I guess she heard me scream. They caught the caretaker on his way into town. I guess he still had the knife on him. Anyway, I guess that's probably when I decided I didn't like the woods."

"You're serious?"

J.J took a sip of her coffee. "No!"

The four of them laugh.

"Come on! I don't know why I am afraid of the woods! I am. Why is he still afraid of the dark?"

"Yeah, Reid why are you still afraid of the dark?" Morgan asked curiously.

"Because of the inherent absence of light!" Both Reid and Elara said at the same time.

Elara blushed and then started laughing lightly seeing the look on the three of their faces. "He's not the only one that is afraid of the dark... I am too."

The four of them laughed.

"Well sweetness I'm glad that you're on the team."


End file.
